Our Common Rule
Our Community has a Common Rule of Life that stems from our understanding of God's love for us and God's creation. It supports our vows of daily prayer, reflective study, and personal service to others, but touches on a number of other areas that are important to our Community, such as the “interbeing” of life - all things are connected and related to each other, and work together for the common good. This is the foundation for who we are and all that we try to do. We also encourage individual commentary on the Common Rule, to reflect where each of us is at in our spiritual journey. The Common Rule, in addition to our own personal commentary and daily journal, are used as guideposts on our spiritual journeys. Included below are the first three chapters of our Common Rule.
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Chapter 1 - God and Us
1. God is love, and God loves us unconditionally. God’s relationship with us began long before we were born: “Before I formed you in your mother’s womb, I knew you.”
2. God breathed into us the Divine image which included a strong desire to be in unity with each other and with creation. From this we have a strong desire to find God.
3. But we often look for God in the wrong places. We seek the wrong connections and false relationships with things or ideas. We may believe that God is in some far-off place, a throne in the skies, way beyond our reach.
4. But we are mistaken, because God is closer, much closer. Truly, God abides in us, and we abide in God. God has made us into a temple where God is intimate with our soul. We belong to God.
5. God is not to be feared, as there is no fear in love. God’s love endures forever, and nothing can come between us and God’s love for us – nothing. It has always been this way, and will always be.
6. To prove this love, and to teach us how to love one another, God sent us the Son, Jesus. Not to condemn the world, but to save it by bringing God’s kingdom to earth. How could God not visit what is loved?
7. To know Jesus is to know God. To know ourselves we need to imitate Jesus. Follow his word, live his way, forgive, share, embrace, smile, pray, and love. Even a small act of love for another person, or for a creature, or for nature, reveals to us what God is like.
8. Some days the distance between us and God may seem a very long way. But this is our perception, not God’s. Each new moment brings an invitation to renew our relationship with God. Watch for signs – in the dawning sun, in the cloud, in the breeze, in the quiet day, in the face of the next person present in your life.
9. We glorify God by becoming who we were made to be. Not what others think we should be – but who God made us to be deep inside. Live to the fullest with the assurance that Jesus walks with us, embraced in the faith that life will be fruitful through his love and guidance. Follow Jesus on the journey from our head to our heart, knowing that each step rests in enduring love, grace and mercy.
10. We seek to love the Lord God with all our heart, and with all our mind, and with all our soul; and to love our neighbor as ourselves. For doing something for the least of any is doing it for God. Walk with gratitude, hope, and joy, for these are the fruits of the Spirit.
Chapter 2 - Jesus and Us
1. God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son to us so that we could learn how to live with each other and with all of creation. He was sent to teach us, to heal us, and show us love. He was God’s free gift to us – not to be earned, but to be accepted.
2. The Oneness of all creation is shown in the unity of God and Christ. “I and my Father are one… If you had known me, you would also have known God.” And, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” This unity extends to us, too. “You will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” We are all interconnected. We are together as a close family.
3. Jesus did not come to change God’s mind about humans – God’s love and mercy were everlasting before time, and on into eternity. But Jesus did come to us to change our minds about God. Jesus came to us to show us what God is like. That God desires healing and reconciliation; not punishment and retribution. God is love everlasting. God desires a deep, personal relationship with each and every person.
4. Jesus did not come to judge the world, but to save us from ourselves. He taught about equality and equity; he taught about humility and mercy; he taught about seeing deeply into the heart; he taught about forgiveness and understanding. Jesus said, “I give you peace; not as the world gives, but as God gives.” “Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me.” “Love one another as I have loved you.”
5. So, how do we respond to this great love, to this eternal gift of grace and mercy? We respond by seeking our true self, and nurturing it in community. We respond by imitating Christ in our own unique way, the way in which we were made by the hand of God. We respond by beginning at the place where we are now, and moving forward just one moment at a time.
6. We study the Gospels. We try to see things as Jesus saw them – united, interconnected, interdependent. We try to say things that Jesus said – “You are loved.” “Peace be unto you.” We try to understand the way Jesus did – in compassion, patience, and wisdom. Life is love, and is the fullest when it is expressed in our own way, as it is needed in the present moment.
7. For Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, On earth As it is in heaven.”
Chapter 3 - The Holy Spirit and Us
1. God loves us so much that we were given the Holy Advocate to teach us, and guide us, to comfort us, and to sustain us in life. The Spirit abides in each and every person.
2. Paul wrote, “The Holy Spirit is the power that brings the soul to life. It is the energy that drives every one of us. It is the breath of life that lets us be who we were meant to be.” The Holy Spirit is the outpouring of God’s love over all time and in every place.
3. A farmer plants a seed where it can grow, but the farmer can’t make it grow. It grows by the power of the Spirit. The farmer has faith that it will grow even though the farmer may never see the harvest.
4. We offer an act of love, like planting a seed, but we can’t make it grow. We place this offering into the hands of God and have faith that it will produce what God wants it to produce by the power of the Holy Spirit.
5. Our task is to love our neighbors as ourselves, without expectation of a result, without expectation of a return, without any expectation of self-gain at all. It is God’s place, not ours, to take this act of love and grow it through the Holy Spirit. Do the love, then let God grow it.
6. Our other task is to listen, listen, listen to the guidance and wisdom of the Holy Spirit in the stillness of the night, in the stillness of our prayers. To be filled with the Holy Spirit Is to be filled with the love of Christ.
Other Chapters are…
4. Community
5. Being Human
6. The Good News
7. The Bread of Life
8. The Body of Christ
9. Prayer
10. Service
11. Creation
12. Worldly Things
13. Mary
14. Living Now
15. The Spiritual Journey